Can I put 4 IDE HDD's, 2 Sata HDD's and 3 DVD drives on an A8N-SLI Deluxe?

[HST]

Yes you are correct, but I can't seem to find the manual in PDF format
so I can print it out and read it at work, have you got it? Maybe you
can post it for me in a dead group or something, I'd appreciate it.

Nevermind, I got the manual.

 

[milleron]

It still pumps.....Cool as the arctic.... ;0)
When I first bought it I had to flash the bios with an older processor
in order for it to accept my Athlon XP 1600+......This little bit of
info was left out when I bought the board, no wonder I couldn't get it
going when I first built it.....Sent it back where I got it from and
they flashed it for me......Well worth it though, this board handles
very well for what I have connected to it....Not sure if you seen the
specs I posted to HST..........



Sounds like a great board and would be inbterested to know furthur how
ya make out.......Board like that for it to run top notch for me would
be an investment as I don't like shortcuts with hardware. 2 PCI slots
make me uncomfortable though, but hey I guess I could live with it.....

It has three PCI slots. Windows XP is installed and running without
any problems. I can't use SiSoft Sandra to benchmark it for some
reason. Just doesn't work on this hardware. May have to wait for a
new version of Sandra.

Ron

 

[milleron]

Yes you are correct, but I can't seem to find the manual in PDF format
so I can print it out and read it at work, have you got it? Maybe you
can post it for me in a dead group or something, I'd appreciate it.

The manual in PDF is at the Asus Support site -- support.asus.com, but
it's never been updated. It's not the shipping manual. For example,
on the board layout, it shows a fan instead of the southbridge
heatpipe. Nevertheless it's perfectly suitable for reading at work.
Let us know if you can't find it.

The ATI AIW X600 Pro is PCI Express and at Newegg for $189.00, I know
I called it the Pro SLI, my mistake.

Two more questions maybe you can answer.

The two LAN ports on the mobo, LAN1 and LAN2, what is the difference
and which one do I connect to my cable modem?

My current old reliable P4B266 has 3 fan connectors and when I look at
the A8N-SLI manual on page 2-23 I see 5 fan connectors on it, besides
the CPU_FAN what did you connect the other 4 to?

HST

Ron

 

[ByTor]

It has three PCI slots. Windows XP is installed and running without
any problems. I can't use SiSoft Sandra to benchmark it for some
reason. Just doesn't work on this hardware. May have to wait for a
new version of Sandra.

Ron

Ooops my bad, I looked at the diagram and seen 2 but I looked closer,
musta missed it......3's not to bad than..........

 

[HST]

Ron, maybe you missed this from the bottom of my last thread and
hopefully you'll have the answers:

The ATI AIW X600 Pro is PCI Express and at Newegg for $189.00, I know
I called it the Pro SLI, my mistake.

Two more questions maybe you can answer.

The two LAN ports on the mobo, LAN1 and LAN2, what is the difference
and which one do I connect to my cable modem?

My current old reliable P4B266 has 3 fan connectors and when I look at
the A8N-SLI manual on page 2-23 I see 5 fan connectors on it, besides
the CPU_FAN what did you connect the other 4 to?

HST

 

[milleron]

Ron, maybe you missed this from the bottom of my last thread and
hopefully you'll have the answers:

The ATI AIW X600 Pro is PCI Express and at Newegg for $189.00, I know
I called it the Pro SLI, my mistake.

Two more questions maybe you can answer.

The two LAN ports on the mobo, LAN1 and LAN2, what is the difference
and which one do I connect to my cable modem?

One Ethernet controller is BUILT INTO the nForce chipset so it
communicates with CPU and memory over the very fast Hypertransport and
memory buses. It's PHY later is made by Marvell.
The other LAN port (the one on the left) is connected to a Marvell Gb
controller on the motherboard. It, too, is compatible with 1,000-Mbs
networks, but it communicates with the computer over the relatively
slower PCI bus. Obviously you can enable both. Some need that for
Internet Connection Sharing, but most of us connect all computers to
each other and the Internet via a router, what MS calls a "Residential
Gateway" in their Network Setup Wizard. Therefore you can disable one
to free up IRQs and polling delays. Most, but NOT ALL, folks
recommend using the nVidia port and disabling the Marvell one in BIOS.
(There was at least one tech site that found better benchmarks with
the Marvell port, but that may have been with a prior nForce driver.)
I'm using the nVidia LAN port -- the one on the right.

My current old reliable P4B266 has 3 fan connectors and when I look at
the A8N-SLI manual on page 2-23 I see 5 fan connectors on it, besides
the CPU_FAN what did you connect the other 4 to?

I saw only four besides the CPU connector. I haven't noticed if the
Premium board still has a fan header for the no-longer-present
southbridge fan.

I'm not that far in my build. I installed the operating system with
the mobo sitting on the benchtop, connected only to the PSU, an
optical drive, and my Raptor. The only fan in this entire rig is the
CPU (XP120) fan.I think I'll connect my case fans to the "Fan-Only"
connectors on my Antec PSU to see how it does controlling them. If
it's noisy, I might connect them to all those fan headers you found
and use Q-Fan or SpeedFan. I'll definitely connect the PSU's rpm
monitor to one of them, though.

Ron

 

[HST]

I'm not that far in my build. I installed the operating system with
the mobo sitting on the benchtop, connected only to the PSU, an
optical drive, and my Raptor. The only fan in this entire rig is the
CPU (XP120) fan.I think I'll connect my case fans to the "Fan-Only"
connectors on my Antec PSU to see how it does controlling them. If
it's noisy, I might connect them to all those fan headers you found
and use Q-Fan or SpeedFan. I'll definitely connect the PSU's rpm
monitor to one of them, though.

Ron

Thanks again for that info, I'm a little bit nervous and excited at
the same time, I finally bought my stuff and should be getting it
delivered next Tuesday, here's what I bought and the prices, all from
Newegg:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Toledo 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core Processor
Model ADA4800CDBOX - Retail $1,065.00

(Two) Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150
Hard Drives - OEM $186.00 x two = $372.00

CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC
3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail $227.00

ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard
- Retail $195.00 (thanks to your advice)

ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon X600Pro 100-714131 All-In-Wonder Radeon
X600Pro 256MB DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail $189.00

Microsoft Windows XP HOME Edition With Service Pack 2 - OEM$83.95

Total spent: $2,131.95

A little bit over what I wanted to spend, but I look at it this way,
with another case and PSU sitting here doing nothing, I can now build
a computer for my 6 year old daughter and put all of my old stuff in
it for her along with the operating system, that's why I got a new
SPK2 for the new build so I can start from scratch and have a fresh
start.

Now I can tell all my friends I have the fastest computer in the
neighborhood, he he he.

Hopefully all goes smooth with the build but I know I can ask in here
and get the answers that I may need. Thanks for all your advice and
input.

HST

 

[Robert Anderson]

Thanks again for that info, I'm a little bit nervous and excited at
the same time, I finally bought my stuff and should be getting it
delivered next Tuesday, here's what I bought and the prices, all from
Newegg:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Toledo 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core Processor
Model ADA4800CDBOX - Retail $1,065.00

(Two) Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150
Hard Drives - OEM $186.00 x two = $372.00

CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC
3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail $227.00

ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard
- Retail $195.00 (thanks to your advice)

ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon X600Pro 100-714131 All-In-Wonder Radeon
X600Pro 256MB DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail $189.00

Microsoft Windows XP HOME Edition With Service Pack 2 - OEM$83.95

Total spent: $2,131.95

A little bit over what I wanted to spend, but I look at it this way,
with another case and PSU sitting here doing nothing, I can now build
a computer for my 6 year old daughter and put all of my old stuff in
it for her along with the operating system, that's why I got a new
SPK2 for the new build so I can start from scratch and have a fresh
start.

Now I can tell all my friends I have the fastest computer in the
neighborhood, he he he.

Hopefully all goes smooth with the build but I know I can ask in here
and get the answers that I may need. Thanks for all your advice and
input.

HST

Awesome choices HST. Good luck with the build as I want to get that same board and CPU if
I come into some money this summer. You will definately have the fastest computer in your
neighborhood and have fun building it.
Robert Anderson

 

[Robert Hancock]

Any experiences I have ever had with burners attached to MB's drags the
machine down when burning making it a little difficult to navigate other
options computing.....I do not attach opticals to HD's either if I can
help it, dragging them down is not an option either by connecting a
lower end device to a HD. Also, the obvious, it keeps them seperate from
HD's....etc. It's a matter of personal preference for me though, as I
had mentioned in my addition to millerons comments I can burn 3cds at
once and my machine does not flinch....If I connected a burner to my
MBoard & burned my machine totally drags ass........Maybe these newer
faster computer manage it more efficiently? I'm not sure, I just won't
trust burners attached to MB's......I will repeat, it is a personal
preference, long drawn out technical explanations I can not provide only
my experience with experimenting............

If the burner is running in DMA mode there should be little difference
between controllers. However, if one connects optical drives to a
controller card, one has to be careful what kind of controller card it
is. Some controllers don't support ATAPI devices like optical drives at
all, or only support them in PIO mode (Promise cards seem to be like this..)

 

[ByTor]

If the burner is running in DMA mode there should be little difference
between controllers. However, if one connects optical drives to a
controller card, one has to be careful what kind of controller card it
is. Some controllers don't support ATAPI devices like optical drives at
all, or only support them in PIO mode (Promise cards seem to be like this..)

Exactly, agree 100%.....PIO mode is what I failed to mention, thanks for
that.